Health care worker week
2 - 8 April 2023. #HealthForAll
By Connect editorial team.
On World Health Day (7 April) and during Health Care Worker Week (2-8th April) we recognise the enormous contributions of Healthcare workers to communities and to health systems.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on the physical, emotional and professional capacities of healthcare workers worldwide. Acknowledging this, and recognising that the majority of health care workers are women, who were often doubly impacted due to their professional and personal family commitments during the COVD-19 pandemic, we highlight the following report exploring the current context for women within the Global Health sector, and recognise the Heroines of Health identified for their contributions to the health of their communities.
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Policy Report: The State of Women and Leadership in Global Health #SheShapes
By Women in Global Health, March 2023
Today, women hold around 70% of health worker jobs globally, over 80% of nursing and over 90% of midwifery roles. Women’s work -paid and unpaid – forms the essential foundation for health, well-being and delivery of health systems.
Despite the contribution women make to health systems and supporting the realization of health for all, women hold only 25% of leadership roles in the sector. If leadership roles were allocated on merit then, since women are 70% of health workers, 70% of health sector leaders would be women. This is the opposite of the current situation where men hold 75% of leadership roles but are only 30% of health workers.
This gendered leadership gap is examined in this report, drawing both on global data and country case studies from India, Nigeria and Kenya
Further using an intersectional lens, this report explores how the primary target groups for most global health organizations and programs - women from low- and middle-income countries - are least represented in global health leadership. This is another dimension of the XX Paradox. In addition, we seek to highlight how leadership in health is as diverse as women themselves. Although the majority of women health workers do not hold formal leadership roles, women are driving change at all levels in health from community to global. At the same time, women want recognition, equal career progression and aspire to senior decision-making roles and the benefits that go with them. Diverse women working in health have an equal right to leadership; this includes the millions of women community health workers currently subsidizing global health with their unpaid work.
To read the full report: https://womeningh.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/The-State-of-Women-and-Leadership-in-Health-Report-.pdf
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Heroines of Health 2022
Recognising the significant contributions of Health workers to their communities.
Women in Global Health launched the Heroines of Health Awards in 2017 to recognise the wealth of talent of women working in health and to provide a platform to voice their concerns as global leaders and to transform our societies to be more gender equitable in health. Although women are the majority of health workers, they are frequently marginalised in leadership; underpaid and unpaid; and not adequately protected from physical and mental harm. To date 53 women health leaders have been recognised by the Awards.
Amongst awardees have been:
SEARCH Community health workers:
The community health workers working in rural India with the non-profit organisation -Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH) – which aims to reach the vulnerable, semi-tribal and deprived communities within a district of Maharashtra state, India. Many of the health workers associated with SEARCH are small farmers and work from home in addition to their role as health messengers educating their community on prevention and treatment of common ailments. During the COVID-19 pandemic they took on valuable roles in ensuring their communities were informed about preventative measures.
2022 Heroines of Health Awardees (most recent awardees)
Mwanamvua Boga, a nurse Manager with the Kenya Medical Research Institutes Wellcome Trust research programme (KEMRI- Wellcome) in Kilifi, Kenya. She works in an extremely busy paediatric unit providing care to children aged 1-2 with various conditions including those born prematurely, those with meningitis, severe malaria, severe pneumonia, and cancer. Alongside her nursing leadership she also provides training programmes for health workers in relation to communication and emotional intelligence skills within their work context. ” I teach about managing emotions – when I feel overwhelmed balancing my responsibilities, I recognize how I feel. I take a step back from my emotions and reflect – and then strategize.” (See Haaland-ICARE model for further details about this training). https://connect.tghn.org/training/icare-haaland-model/
2017 Heroines of Health Awardee (first year of award)
To read about more heroines of health: https://womeningh.org/initiatives/heroines-of-health/